Councilmember Vincent Gentile (left), prime sponsor of the legislation, joins Councilmember Jessica Lappin (center), who introduced tree-pruning legislation to prevent blockage of traffic signs, and Council Speaker Christine Quinn at the bill-signing event on Wednesday.
Pedestrian-safety bill looks to crash-free future
By Chris Lombardi
Local pedestrian-safety advocates cheered on Wednesday as the City Council passed an important piece of legislation, especially given the high number of crashes reported in both Chelsea and Clinton last year.
Both Transportation Alternatives, the Chelsea-based nonprofit that promotes more cyclist- and pedestrian-friendly policies, and the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition (CHEKPEDS) had fought for the Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Act, requiring the city’s Department of Transportation to conduct a comprehensive study of traffic fatalities involving pedestrians. The groups want to use this study to develop strategies for improving pedestrian safety, and local advocates told Chelsea Now that both parts of the bill are essential—since accurate, comprehensive data is necessary before planners can start building for a crash-free future.
Serious accidents have occurred frequently in Chelsea and Clinton over the past few years, and half of Transportation Alternatives’ list of the 10 most dangerous intersections in Manhattan are within its boundaries. They are: W. 14th St. and Sixth Ave. (65 crashes in 2007); W. 34th St. and Seventh Ave. (85); W. 42nd St. and Eighth Ave. (77); 23rd St. and Ninth Ave. (66); and W. 42nd St. and Avenue of the Americas (66). Last month, a bicycle messenger was killed just east of Penn South on W. 29th Street. And, according to CHEKPEDS co-founder Christine Berthet, two were badly injured on 40th Street and Dyer Avenue, just north of the Lincoln Tunnel.
“They’ll recover, but they’re seriously hurt,” said Berthet, who is also co-chair of Community Board 4’s Transportation Planning Committee. “But right now, the DOT only tracks fatalities—when someone has been killed. Now, they’ll have to gather all the data.”
Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, agreed that the “comprehensive study” mandated by the bill is a crucial tool. “Currently, crash data demonstrates that over 50 percent of all pedestrian-related crashes occur at just 10 percent of all intersections,” White said in a statement. “Improving the most crash-prone locations for pedestrians will save lives and go a long way to address community concerns at historically dangerous intersections.”
The study mandated by the bill is not just a list of crashes, but an analysis of why they happen. Within 90 days of receiving state data, the DOT would be required to inspect locations with five or more pedestrian and/or bicyclist injuries or fatalities during the prior 12 months. When new crashes result in fatalities, the DOT will be required to inspect any crash location involving a fatality within 90 days of such a crash. The DOT would also be required to act upon safety recommendations from inspections, and make the results of the inspections and recommendations available to the public upon request.
“The Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Act is a major step forward in keeping New Yorkers safe,” stated Council Member Vincent Gentile, prime sponsor of the legislation. “By looking at our city’s most dangerous intersections, patterns at specific crash locations and assessing the previous five years of accident data, we are in fact prioritizing pedestrians and bicyclists, and putting them first. Fifty percent of accidents occur at 10 percent of our city’s intersections. With this bill we are taking crash locations and turning them into viable learning experiences to further safeguard and protect our citizens.”
To Berthet, this means being able to obtain reliable information without having to fight for it. Transportation Alternatives’ CrashStat Website, which posts figures for the past 13 years, is great, she said, but for more detailed information, “we’d have to do a Freedom of Information Law request,” she added. “But FOILs are exhausting: You have to request it and go through hoops for data. It takes so much energy—and then you realize what it means. It means that DOT doesn’t have the information.” For Berthet, whose CHEKPEDS worked last summer on a study of Ninth Ave. that pondered numerous options to promote safety, the lack of data is close to a crime.
“Wasn’t it Galileo,” Berthet added, “who said you cannot manage what you cannot measure?”
Both Berthet and White also emphasized that the language of the bill was key, since it establishes that drivers are most often responsible for fatalities and injuries. “Pedestrian crashes are not random occurrences,” White said. “Using the term ‘crash’ instead of ‘accident,’ the bill further heralds a significant shift towards accountability and systematic prevention of traffic injuries and fatalities.”
Just as important as the data, Berthet said, is the language about “developing solutions” to the vexing problem of pedestrian safety. The next step, she said, is something called “traffic justice,” based on the Swedish concept of “Vision Zero.”
The principle, as described by Charles Komanoff of the Tribeca Center for Cycling and Walking, is “a new approach to road safety based on the precept that one casualty, even an injury, is one too many. Advocates say that this approach is already the norm in industry and other transport sectors such as rail and aviation, making it ripe for adoption in road transport.” If auto crashes were taken as seriously as airplane crashes, Komanoff believes, planners might not work so hard to protect drivers instead of designing roads, cars and traffic systems that hold them more accountable for any damage that results.
Berthet admitted that the road from City Hall to “Vision Zero” is likely to be long, but she and White agreed that this week’s bill creates a new partner in their quest to make local streets safer.
“This bill ... will bring important pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements to areas in the five boroughs that have long been terrifying places to walk and bike,” said White. He added that the changes it will bring about will also provide additional health benefits.
“It will enable New Yorkers to be more physically active and walk more in their neighborhoods.”
